| | | |   By Elizabeth Cooney | Good morning. We close the week with a look at new wounds in the wake of "tranq," the botched and belabored CPAP recall, and what dictated the end of a beloved birthing center. | | | New danger: As 'tranq' use surges, unusual wounds spike  (Maria Fabrizio for STAT) The latest evolution in the increasingly dangerous U.S. drug supply is a spike in wounds. Not injection site damage, but lesions a nurse volunteering at a Philadelphia outreach event said looked like something eating away flesh from the inside. The rise in wounds among people who use drugs in Philadelphia reflects the surge in the local supply of a compound called xylazine, STAT’s Andrew Joseph reports. A veterinary tranquilizer, xylazine, or “tranq,” has exploded in prevalence in the city to the point that in 2021, it was found, in varying concentrations, in more than 90% of heroin and fentanyl samples.
“I’ve been jumping up and down like a maniac for three years trying to get attention on this,” Sarah Laurel LaCerra of the harm reduction group Savage Sisters told Drew. “What we’re doing is a Band-Aid on a bullet hole.” And it’s not just the wounds. Read more. | Troubled recall of Philips CPAP machines underscores weak device oversight You may have heard about the ongoing recall of millions of breathing devices made by Philips. STAT’s Brittany Trang details how the process has been botched and belabored at nearly every turn: - It took more than a decade after users first reported the soundproofing foam in their CPAP and BPAP machines breaking down for Philips to issue a recall.
- The recall failed to reach many patients, and many are still waiting on their promised replacement devices or refunds, some of which had to be recalled themselves.
- More than a year after the recall, the FDA has received more than 90,000 reports about problems with the devices, including 260 deaths.
FDA has pulled all the levers it has, but the issues underscore its lack of manpower to police devices like these. Philips did not respond to a request for comment. Read more. | Heart failure risk is rising in meth users In other substance use news, add heart failure to the list of serious problems faced by meth users. A new systematic review in Heart says the risk of heart failure — when the heart loses its ability to pump blood throughout the body — is rising with growing use of the stimulant. U.S. and Canadian researchers say 21 small, retrospective, and observational studies from 1997 to 2020 showed that heart failure in meth users is more severe than in people who don't use the drug. Among heart failure patients, meth users are younger.
Meth users already have a higher risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and sudden death. And they may also have another substance use disorder, PTSD, depression, or other heart and kidney disease. A companion editorial calls for more rigorous research and a therapeutic approach that takes lessons from treatments successfully applied in opioid use disorder. “A multidisciplinary team designed to meet this population’s unique needs and deliver non-stigmatising, patient-centred care is mandatory.” | Seeing the blind spots in eye care and beyond to revolutionize treatment for patients A number of important and common diseases, including those in eye care, have not been focus areas for new therapeutics. One unique approach that leverages innovative chemistry for use in humans may be the answer in treating eyelid diseases and rosacea, and even preventing Lyme disease. Read more about how this novel drug could potentially lead to a first FDA-approved treatment targeting one of the most common diseases in the eyes. | Closer look: Corporate interests and community needs collide in birthing center's closure  (alissa ambrose/stat) There’s a reason the North Shore Birth Center (above) in Beverly, Mass., looks more like a home than a medical facility, even from the outside. Birth centers are typically staffed by midwives, focused on unmedicated and low-risk births and regular reproductive care in comfortable non-hospital settings, without physicians.
From 2020 to 2021, the number of birth centers across the country almost doubled to over 400, according to the March of Dimes. But the North Shore Birth Center was one of just a handful in Massachusetts. In a state with some of the most elite health care facilities in the world, these centers struggle to stay open. Earlier this week, 30 patients, midwives, and community members gathered on a stormy night to commemorate its 42-year run. The official closure of the birth center comes about three years after a contested hospital system merger. STAT’s Theresa Gaffney explores the collision of business demands with community needs. Read more. | Antibodies show many didn’t know they had Covid Before her first positive Covid test more than two years into the pandemic, a wise health care professional I know always added "to my knowledge” when saying she hadn’t yet been infected. A new CDC report suggests many of us should add the same caveat. Serology data from a representative sample of the general public showed 42% of adults had previously had Covid, nearly half of whom said they weren’t aware of being infected.
Among those with an antibody profile specific to past Covid infection, 1 in 4 hadn’t been vaccinated, including more younger adults and more Black adults than people from other groups. “These data show disparities in Covid-19 infection and vaccination and highlight health equity concerns that can guide ongoing efforts toward addressing vaccine equity,” the authors write. | The race for obesity drugs just gained a new player The demand for drugs that reduce weight has driven shortages in treatments designed to help people with diabetes, not celebrities looking to slim down. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk both market drugs that were recently shown to lower body weight by around 15% to 20% after a little over a year. Lilly’s is currently approved only for diabetes, but it plans to submit for obesity next year.
Now Amgen has released detailed data suggesting its early-stage drug can induce significant weight loss in patients with obesity, with less frequent dosing than current treatments but a safety profile that remains unclear. Amgen’s AMG133 works much like the Lilly and Novo drugs, known as semaglutide and tirzepatide. All three have similar side effects: gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, vomiting, or nausea. STAT’s Jason Mast has more. | | | | | What we're reading - Stanford partnered with a major Bay Area hospital to treat critically ill kids. Four of them died, San Francisco Chronicle
- Widespread outage shuts down 988 mental health hotline, Associated Press
- Alzheimer’s researchers try out an unfamiliar sensation: optimism, STAT
- Medical bills remain inaccessible for many visually impaired Americans, NPR
- Opinion: Congress: Close the gap between funding for nutrition research and the toll diet-related disease takes on Americans, STAT
| Thanks for reading! More Monday,  P.S.: Hope you’re done with breakfast, but passing along yesterday’s advice from CDC to cook your frozen stuffed chicken products in an oven, not a microwave or air fryer, to avoid salmonella from undercooking. (The agency acknowledges ovens may not be in reach for people of lower income or living in mobile homes.) | | | | Have a news tip or comment? Email Me | | | | | |
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